Wayzata Public Schools (MN)

District Overview
Schools: 11
Employees: 1,250
Students: 11,000

Wayzata Public Schools in Wayzata, MN is a large, suburban district, whose population continues to grow. Wayzata High School, for example, teaches over 3300 students, making it the largest high school in the state. With so many students on one campus, the district wanted to prioritize risk management. However, after the 2014-2015 school year, they faced $3.2 million in state budget cuts. Administration wanted to implement new student safety systems, but they also wondered: could they justify the investment?

An Outdated System

When administrators created a list of safety processes that needed improvement, student accident reporting appeared, by consensus, as the number one priority.

The existing accident reporting process relied upon a staff member submitting a hand-written incident form, which was then photocopied and hand-distributed to various parties. After distribution, no single repository existed for keeping injury records, which caused unnecessary risk.  (For example, if a student was injured and the principal didn’t immediately see the paper form, the students’ parents may not be contacted immediately.) The lack of a single place to reference records also left the health and safety coordinator unable to notice trends and, consequently, less able to create effective prevention plans.

To decide if StudentWatch Suite’s Student Accident Reporting system would improve this process enough to justify the investment, the district began a test exercise of the system with district nurses.

A Streamlined Solution

The Student Accident Reporting System makes reporting accidents simple.

As soon as an accident occurs, a staff member submits an online accident report. The system then automatically alerts the principal and other necessary staff via email, allowing the principal to notify the parents immediately.

A central online catalogue maintains the accident records and the security of student injury information, so when the health and safety coordinator wants to see if similar accidents have occurred, a trend report can reveal areas that may benefit from additional safety precautions.

The Way Forward

For the nurses at Wayzata, the Student Accident Reporting System felt so intuitive that they were ready to submit and process reports, even though this was beyond the scope of the exercise. The school board and administration were so impressed with the system’s streamlined, automated approach to reducing risk that they chose to fully invest in the system.

At Wayzata, the Student Accident Reporting System helped accomplish three goals. First, it maximized the efficiency of student accident reporting, so that accident response time improved dramatically. Second, it allowed the district to use trend reports to create more effective prevention plans and make school grounds even safer. Lastly, its automated, comprehensive approach allowed the district to maintain the distinguished “AAA” bond rating it has held since 2008.